At Kochi.

The day had begun at 4, when Lekha's cellphone's alarm had come to life. We went through the chores, Lekha prepared our packed breakfast of appams and tomato chutney. By the time we'd kicked off from 'The Quarterdeck', it was a half past 6 - and we were half an hour behind schedule! I took the Aluva route and therefore, passed through Thrissur town and then passed the Paliyekkara tollgate without having to stop, phew!

The FASTag has settled down at its optimum! Somewhere short of Chalakkudi, there was a half an hour's traffic snarl due to a nasty accident between a private bus and a maxi cab and the policemen at the site diverted us through the service road. The rest of the passage was smooth except for the continuous amber glow of the engine on the Chevy's dashboard.

By the time we reached Kochi, it was pouring and when we reached ShenoyCare it was a half past 9 and the new parking area was full of slush. I could shepherd Lekha safely into the reception so that she could go through the registration formalities without much ado. Lekha's parameters were within acceptable limits and the doctor was damn happy to see her. Her next visit has been slated for 28 Dec.

We, then, shot off to Dr Satish Bhat with my lab test results. He, too, was happy with the progress and our next tryst has also been slated for 28 Dec. A quick lunch at the 'Oottupura' at Panampilli Nagar - Rajani, looked after us well, taking care of our needs. 

We were off to my cousin, Advocate Prabha's chambers and had a long chat to catch up with her. The Chevy was parked at Oottupura and we went by an autorickshaw because of the parking difficulty near her office. We were meeting up with her for the first time after Ramakrishnan's passing away. She is gonna go for a surgery of both her wrists, for better blood circulation in her hands, which is scheduled for the 10th of next month. She dropped us back to our car, while helping us pick up a few things enroute amid heavy rain.

We sat in her car through the rain and then left for our final destination at Leela chittamma's house at Kunnumpuram. It was almost two years since we'd dropped there and it was a grand homecoming! It was yakkittiyak all through the evening with Salini, her daughter-in-law and Lakshmi, her chirpy and cute granddaughter. The little one, also, did help me out with the glitches of my cellphone in a jiffy. Phew! Chittamma's culinary prowess was on display with the lovely spread of dinner; damn sweet of her!

It was a late night but as we hit the sack, we'd still not finished with our conversation!

Tailpiece.

Kittu had seen us off early in the morning as he stuffed in the biscuits, offered to him